Mimicking Birds, the Verner Pantons, Thanks

[CELESTIAL FOLK] For all its hushed, introspective qualities, the world Mimicking Birds invokes on record extends far beyond singer-songwriter Nate Lacy’s navel. It doesn’t reveal itself in a glance. Listening to the band is like peering at a drop of water in a microscope: The closer it’s observed, the more its internal universe opens up. With Eons, that universe has grown more lushly detailed. It’s still centered on Lacy’s delicate acoustic-guitar patterns and ghostly chill of a voice, but, abetted by drummer Aaron Hanson, bassist Adam Trachsel and producer Jeremy Sherrer, there’s now a brilliant star system orbiting around him. Shimmers of distortion ripple across “Memorabilia” and “Wormholes,” while throughout the record, various constellations of sitar, banjo and mouth harp glint in the distance. On “Owl Hoots,” Sherrer envelops Lacy in a meteor shower of skittering drums and electronic ephemera, propelling him across his own astral plane. Lacy has always filled his lyrics with invocations of nature and the cosmos, of “planetary systems” and reservoirs filling with fluid. But on Eons, he isn’t merely gazing at the stars—he’s traveling among them.